Comiskey family buys Sunshine Coast’s Imperial Hotel for $20m
The Comiskey family has added the Imperial Hotel to its growing portfolio of hospitality venues. Photo:

Comiskey family buys Sunshine Coast’s Imperial Hotel for $20m

Queensland’s Comiskey family has led the latest round of dealmaking in the still booming pub sector after snapping up one of the Sunshine Coast’s best known venues, the Imperial Hotel at Eumundi in the Noosa hinterland, for about $20 million.

Situated on more than half a hectare of land near the famous Eumundi outdoor markets, the 112-year-old property built in the Queenslander style includes an on-site gin and vodka distillery, a bottle shop drive-through, the Eumundi Brewery operated by Lion and a 15-room boutique accommodation hotel.

It adds to an already extensive portfolio of assets owned and managed by Comiskey Group that spans accommodation hotels, holiday parks and entertainment venues like the Eatons Hill Hotel and the Sandstone Point Hotel in Brisbane’s Moreton Bay region.

The Comiskey family also has a number of new developments in the pipeline including a $35 million hotel and music venue in Stockland’s Aura estate near Caloundra and a $50 million hotel and shopping centre project in the Moreton Bay suburb of Dakabin.

The Comiskey family has added the Imperial Hotel to its growing portfolio of hospitality venues.
The Comiskey family has added the Imperial Hotel to its growing portfolio of hospitality venues.

Director Rob Comiskey said acquiring the Imperial Hotel and partnering with Lion was an “unmissable opportunity”.

“We are excited to take ownership of the venue, and plan to add new furniture, lighting and landscaping to really reinvigorate the existing spaces. We also look forward to bringing in a new menu and offering that we hope the community will love,” he said.

The Imperial Hotel was put on the market over a year ago by long-term owners Craig and Mel Manley. HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, Glenn Price and Brent McCarthy brokered the sale on their behalf.

“We fielded interest from a large number of hospitality investors, and whilst the successful party was Queensland-based, it was clients with both Sydney and Melbourne-based operations that presented the most interest,” Mr Price said.

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In Sydney, which has been the centre of recent pub deal activity after developer Mark Toma’s Virtical bought the Republic Hotel, Kinselas Hotel and the Courthouse Hotel for more than $100 million, publican Matthew Sweeney has acquired the Salisbury Hotel in Stanmore in the city’s inner west for $17 million.

The art deco property was offered with 15 gaming machines and 20 accommodation rooms alongside a mix of food and beverage facilities. The vendors were long-term owner-operators Ged Dore and Trish Larkin.

Mr Sweeney will add the Stanmore Hotel to O’Brien’s Hotel in Narooma on the NSW South Coast when he gets the keys just before Christmas.

JLL’s Kate MacDonald and Ben McDonald brokered the deal.

Mr McDonald said the sale highlighted the ongoing resilience of the pub sector amid rising economic headwinds.

“As we enter what is traditionally one of the busiest periods of transaction activity in the pub sector, we are buoyed by the level of unfulfilled capital still seeking opportunities in the asset class. We look forward to assisting those parties and formally announcing a number of transactions across NSW in the near term,” he said.

The Salisbury Hotel has been bought by publican Matthew Sweeney.
The Salisbury Hotel has been bought by publican Matthew Sweeney.

In a third noteworthy deal, Wollongong-based hospitality operators Frank and Gail Davlouros have purchased the historic former Razorback Inn near Picton for $3.4 million from The Community Apostolic Order, a holding company of the fundamentalist Christian sect known as the Twelve Tribes.

The Davlouroses plan to refurbish the property as a function centre and café. It was mostly recently used as a bed and breakfast. Darren Zammit and Cooper Meehan from LJ Hooker Commercial brokered the sale.

The Razorback Inn will be turned into an events centre and café.
The Razorback Inn will be turned into an events centre and café.